"Stop Motion Street Fighter...Sort Of."

Despite all of the complaints about the Super Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat having no blood, it is still a decent game.

Story: n/a

There really is no story to speak of. Shang Tsung has called a tournament with the intention of destroying Earth&acute;s greatest warriors, the story is briefly mentioned in the beginning, and not again until the end. It is not a major component of Mortal Kombat.

Graphics: 8/10

Unlike most fighting games, Mortal Kombat uses digitized sprites of real actors rather than hand drawn ones. They are much better than those awful graphics that Mortal Kombat on Sega Genesis. The graphics are very clear and the characters are well defined. It is worth noting that all blood in the game is white, Nintendo wanted to maintain its family friendly status. There are occasional glitches when performing Johnny Cage&acute;s fatality, he ordinarily shoves his leg through the opponent&acute;s torso; sometimes he is far away and kicks forward causing the opponent to drop dead although no contact was made, but every fighting game has errors when it comes to hit detection.

Sound: 6/10

Honestly, I preferred the Sega Genesis version in terms of sound. The opening song was removed, instead it has Goro hitting the Acclaim logo. And when Scorpion uses his spear technique, his famous "GET OVER HERE!" is garbled. The noises made by punches and kicks is very clear though. Oh well, sound isn&acute;t really a major component of fighting games anyway.

Gameplay: 9/10

This is where Mortal Kombat does well. Plenty of combos to execute, 3 special moves per character. The fighting system is very simplistic, which makes it very easy to learn, it is difficult to master however. The uppercuts, which send your opponent skyward while removing about a quarter of their health bar are amazing. After you deplete your opponent&acute;s health during round 2 you will be prompted to "FINISH HIM/HER", you are then given about 5 seconds to execute a series of button presses which will destroy your enemy, for example, Scorpion breathes fire on his enemy, leaving nothing but a charred skeleton. The fatalities, while nowhere near as gory as the ones on the Sega Genesis are still fun to pull off. In most fighting games you win by knockout, in Mortal Kombat you actually finish off your opponent.

Buy/Rent

If you are a gore fanatic than this is not for you, but if you are interested in a good fighter than this is for you. I recommend that you buy it, it is only about $7 on eBay.